– by Noluthando Makhaza
The UKZN Discipline of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care have yet again hosted a successful Annual Clinical programme – the Anaesthetics Refresher programme (at UKZN Extended Learning). The Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetics (2019) describes anaesthesia as “the practice of administering medications either by injection or by inhalation that block the feeling of pain and other sensations, or that produce a deep state of unconsciousness that eliminates all sensations, which allows medical and surgical procedures to be undertaken without causing undue distress or discomfort.”
Despite an increase in the complexity of surgical operations, modern anaesthesia is relatively safe due to high standards of training that emphasise quality and safety. The Anaesthetics Refresher programme has been running for over thirty years and hosts registrars in anaesthesia from all over the country preparing them for their final FCA examinations, where they benefit from the guidance and teaching of experienced local, external and CMSA examiners.
The facilitation of this programme concurrently took place at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital for a period of five consecutive days. It incorporated lectures, practical workshops, clinical case presentations and mock oral examinations. The anesthesia registrars were thoroughly examined on their work where examiners focused and stressed emphasis on a number of factors such as safety competencies, knowledge facts, insight, inspecting whether the registrar sees the overall picture and is able to create links, and whether the registrar is patient-centred.
This programme was proudly sponsored by numerous organisations including Investec, Abbvie, ICU Medical, SSEM, Teleflex, and Viking. We would like to wish the anaesthesia registrars the very best in their career as they take on huge responsibility to ensure the health and wellbeing of our citizens.
For more info on this conference, please contact:
Shaughnnessa Govender
T: +27 31 260 2246
